Jurors hear police officer's call for assistance

She radioed for help in struggle with DJ

Published 10:00 pm, Thursday, October 18, 2007

The call on the police radio was clearly frantic, with Seattle Police Officer Daina Boggs in obvious distress as she called for assistance.

It was a call jurors heard Thursday on the second day of the trial of Toby Campbell, a popular DJ charged with third-degree assault in an attack on Boggs after a high school football game.

Boggs, dressed in the black, battle-dress uniform of the West Precinct Anti-Crime Team to which she belongs, testified Thursday that she made her call for help as she struggled with the much larger Campbell, who had her in a tight bear hug.

She managed to call for assistance on her radio, then went down.

"I remember ending up on the ground, him on top of me, and eventually being able to crawl out from under him," Boggs told jurors.

There is no question that on Sept. 15, 2006, Campbell had an altercation with Boggs in the parking lot of Seattle Center's Memorial Stadium. Both he and the officer have photos showing various injuries they suffered, some of the images already viewed by jurors.

But prosecutors contend that Campbell, upset that his teenage daughter was detained by police following the game, rushed the officers, shoving and striking Boggs before both went to the asphalt. He was arrested after Boggs' partner, David Blackmer, shot him with a Taser.

Defense attorneys argue that the officers were expecting trouble at the game and overreacted when Campbell tried to find out why his daughter was in handcuffs.

"Toby had no intention of assaulting her," defense attorney Lisa Daugaard told jurors. "And he did not assault her. He is innocent."

Campbell was at Memorial Stadium to pick up his daughter and her friend after they went to a football game between Garfield and Franklin high schools.

The event could get volatile, deputy prosecutor Corrin Bohn told jurors, and at least one fight broke out as the game crowd dispersed. Boggs and Blackmer, both anti-crime team members, were there for crowd and traffic control.

At some point, Campbell's daughter and her friend were seen walking slowly in front of traffic, impeding its flow. They ignored several commands by police to get out of the way, Bohn said.

Eventually, Blackmer grabbed Campbell's daughter by her book bag and pulled her aside.

In his testimony on Wednesday, Blackmer said he just wanted to get the girl's name so he could contact her school principal and report her behavior. But Campbell's daughter would not cooperate, the officer testified. He ended up handcuffing her, he said, until he could learn who she was.

It was at this point that Campbell, alerted by his daughter's friend, saw what was happening and began to run toward the location, slowing to a walk just before he got there.

Boggs saw him, she said, and believed he posed a threat to her partner, so she stepped into his path, putting her hand up to stop his advance.

That's when he pushed her, she said. She responded by grabbing his clothing, and he struck her face hard enough, she said, to knock out a cap on one of her teeth.

She pulled in close to him to avoid any more blows, and then ended up in the bear hug and on the ground. When she got up, she realized that Blackmer had shot Campbell with the Taser.

Campbell has said he was kicked and hit by the officers, but Boggs said she didn't see anyone hit him, though she testified that she wasn't always in a position to see what was going on.

Prosecutors wrapped up their case Thursday. The defense portion of the trial is expected to continue into next week.